Businesses should 'air gap' servers and understand Chinese language

US claims 12 Chinese groups are behind cyber attacks

Servers need to be ‘air gapped' from the internet in order to prevent attack.

Speaking at an event on China and cyber security titled ‘Traversing the great (fire) wall', US military expert and author lieutenant colonel (Ret) William Hagestad said that companies should ‘air gap' their intellectual property or disconnect it from the internet to keep it separate.

He said: “When you put a server on the web, you will see hits on it as attempts are made to find open ports. You will see hits on servers coming from China and there is no obfuscation.

“It does not point directly to the military though. An APT? It is an over-used term, but it is the perfect technical solution for a nation-state attack, as it is a threat, it is persistent, as it will not go away, and where it is coming from is definitely advanced,” he said,

Hagestad said that the term ‘warfare' should not be used, as with cyber threats originating from China this is not a war situation. “This is conflict,” he said. He pointed to defacement of a Filipino newswire and said that as the country's one billion plus citizens become more connected to the internet, it is leading to a disaffected generation.

He later said that Chinese language is the perfect form of cryptography, as if "any coding is in Chinese they will be able to do what they want unless your administrators can speak Chinese".

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